Keeping Your Club’s User Data Private

Selling user data has become a scarily commonplace occurrence in modern society. A practice so dystopian that not even Nineteen Eighty-Four, Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid’s Tale or A Brave New World managed to predict it. As you’ve probably guessed from that intro, we at Member Jungle are not fans of selling user data. As such, we will never play any role in it. 

In this article, we will go over what selling user data is, why it should concern you and how to check which companies are practising it. 

What Does It Mean To “Sell User Data”? 

Basically, selling user data is a practice where companies, websites, social media sites and search engines take any information they can about you and sell it to the highest bidder. This allows other companies to target you with advertisements they think you will like. Search engines and social media make a large percentage of their profits by selling your data; the honest truth is to these companies: you aren’t the customer; you are the product. 

I’m not going to get too into the weeds on this, but the amount of data they collect, what they can tell from it and how often they sell it is a serious cause for concern. Basically, companies and businesses you’ve never heard of know a scary amount about you, including roughly where you live, where you work, your age, gender, sexuality, hobbies, browser history and purchase history. If companies you’ve never heard of knowing intimate details about your life aren’t worrying enough, if any of those companies get hacked, your personal information could end up in the hands of some very bad people. 

This can be a fairly stressful topic, and so far, this article has not been the most enjoyable read. So, to counter this, we are now going to talk about the good news; plus, to sweeten the pot, here is a picture of a pug wearing a little hipster beanie.

 

 

I’ve decided his name is Elvis Pugsley, and he would never sell your data. 

Member Jungle Promises To Never Share Your Data

Speaking of people who will never sell your user data, Member Jungle will never sell your data to any third-party companies. Our Privacy Policy explicitly states, “We will never, ever sell your personal information to anyone.” 

We also will never use the data of your club members to directly market to them. This means that just because they sign up to a club that is using Member Jungle doesn’t mean we feel entitled to be able to market to them. 

The Member Jungle Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions are freely available on our website. Still, I will also link them below if you would like to read them for yourself. 

• Member Jungle Privacy Policy 
• Member Jungle Terms and Conditions 

How To Work Out Which Companies Will Sell Your Data

Unless you stay off all social media and search engines, someone somewhere will be selling your data. However, when it comes to choosing a membership management system to help in the running of your club, you can avoid adding another data seller to your life. 

Some membership management companies will take the same stance as Member Jungle and outright refuse to ever sell your data; others, though, will give your and your members’ data to their parent company so that the company can market to you and your members. Others still will simply sell whatever they can to any third party who wants it. 
 

 

The good news is that companies need to disclose what they do with your data. This information is typically found in the company’s Terms and Conditions and/or their Privacy Policy. 

So, for any membership management software that you are contemplating signing up for, it is a very good idea to look through their terms and conditions and/or their privacy policy for information on what they do with your data. Finding the particular section where they talk about what they do with your data can be tricky, but searching their privacy policy for certain keywords can be a great place to start.  

Keywords you should search for in the privacy policy or terms and conditions to find information on data selling: 

• user data
• personal information
• data 
• third party
• information
• selling 
• sharing
• Disclose  

Checking the data policy of any membership management company you are considering is a very good idea, as it isn’t just your data but the data of all of your members that you may be handing over to them. 

Many membership management systems offer various integrations with other software and services, everything from payment gateways to email marketing companies. It’s a good idea to find out what the data collecting and selling policies of these integrations are as well. As some of them will also be in the business of selling user data. 

Other Club Data Considerations 

So now you know what selling user data is, why you should be concerned about it and that Member Jungle will never sell your user data. You also know how to check if any other membership management company you are considering sells your user data. However, that is not all there is to know about keeping your membership data safe. 

So, to continue down this path, why not read either, How does Member Jungle protect your data? or What is Two Factor Authentication & Why Is It Important in Membership Management.